crystal type shady bits in certain light

barryzola · #1 (**permalink**) 02-02-2006, 09:26 AM

Hello there, im a bit of a newbie so would appreciate any help here. I've got a panasonic nv-ds65 camcorder which was working fine until about 3 months ago. I dont know what happened but now, when i record in certain light (usually bright) i get these see through type crystally things appear on my recording and on the lcd view. i thought it was just condensation at first but i don't think that would still affect it months later, would it? I was thinking about getting a head cleaner to see if that helped. Any ideas people?
Also, i was thinking of upgrading to a better camcorder now i've got the recording bug (the panasonic nv-ds65 was great as a beginner, but sadly i now notice the lack of performance in poorly lit areas etc). I heard that the 3CCD ones were good. Can anyone recommend a good one? Obviously im willing to pay that bit more now for the better quality, but i still dont want to be paying thousands. Thanks people.

Mark W · #2 (**permalink**) 02-02-2006, 12:27 PM

Are you sure it's not lens flares? Does it happen when there is a bright souirce of light shining acroos the camera?

barryzola · #3 (**permalink**) 02-02-2006, 04:17 PM

Thanks for getting back to me. Hmmm, thats possible as i can only remember it happening in bright light. What the hell is a lens flare? haha.

P.S - Your site is brilliant, hope i can start to build up something like that one day.

Mark W · #4 (**permalink**) 02-02-2006, 04:58 PM

Thanks for comment about my site. Actually i always think it is a complete mess, I made it in 4 days with no website knowledge at the start ! Glad it does the job. Must finish it one day !

Lens flares - these occur when a bright source of light hits the lens from the side and the light bounces around inside the lens. Often you see hoods over the lens of cameras, these cut stray light and flares. Try getting the unwanted effect and then shading the side of the lens near the light source with your hand, if the effect goes then it was flare.

barryzola · #5 (**permalink**) 02-02-2006, 05:51 PM

Thanks, i'll try that. I just ordered a panasonic head cleaner too so im gonna use that once when it arrives just to make sure it was nothing to do with the heads.

Nikosony · #6 (**permalink**) 02-05-2006, 11:12 PM

Dirty heads show up usually as a mosaic pattern on the screen or sometimes picture breakup or upright bars. You may even notice sound 'glitches' or a click (I think that's everything).

barryzola · #7 (**permalink**) 02-06-2006, 07:09 AM

Thanks for the info buddy.

Phil B · #8 (**permalink**) 02-13-2006, 07:23 PM

This sounds quite similar to my problem. When something is white bright such as the sky below this happens:

As you can see the sky doesn't look right at all... that jpg really doesn't do it justice. On the LCD it looks realy awful. It only happens on something that is bright and nothing I do seems to sort it out.

Head cleaner needed? Or is it something worse?

barryzola · #9 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 11:19 AM

Do u have the same camcorder as me? I think i need to get one of those 3CCD ones. I think i've realised that if you want quality, you have to pay for it. My panasonic nv-ds65 was ok for when i started out, but now i actually want very good quality recordings it is'nt good enough in poor light and extreme light conditions. Oh well, i better go and earn 500+ for one of those panasonic 3CCD's.

Mark W · #10 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 11:39 AM

i had a ds 65 and thought it was great if used within it's boundaries.

As for the pic above, well looks to me like this is a case of 'auto' everything being on. What I think has happened is that the sky is very bright so the camcorder has decreased the exposure / reduced shitter speed to expose the overall picture correctly. But, this has resulted in the forground being very under exposed, hence poor colours and contrast.

To fix, just use manual exposure for shots like this.